[Ian]

I did a half day course this Saturday, - it was part of a thrown-in freebie when I bought the numptystrada, - and it was brilliant.

The course was one on one (as a gixer boy did not turn up) with off duty T5 high pursuit driver/motorcyclist policeman. In all it was 4 hours of intense concentration and hard riding. I was really impressed with the guys recollection of the previous 20 minuets ride as he described back every car, lorry, horse, hazard that we had encountered, and how I had dealt with them. Also interesting to hear of the different accidents he had seen whilst doing the course as people tried to impress or prove themselves quicker. What really surprised me was the full use of the road to open up bends, - with moving over into the gutter for right handers, - and entering left hand bends on the other side of the road so as to be able to see through them and "crack on that throttle" sooner. We had a stretch of country lane with no junctions on the right of it that was in effect a mile long left hand sweeper with a narrow one way bridge in it, - he knew it like the back of his hand and told me to come out onto the "wrong" side of the road so as to see ahead for a long way, - we were flying along, - but the key to it was we were flying along in safety. The other thing was when following cars looking to overtake sit out on the "wrong" side when nothing is ahead, if the road ahead bends to the left you can still see to overtake.
The guy was a real motorcycle enthusiast and I after years of riding learnt a few things, - the ride back was a wonderful road from Tunbridge Wells to East Grinstead, which I think Bike magazine said was an all time best, - it was great with that extra 6' of visibility going into left handers, corner speed was certainly up.

If you ever get chance to do one of this things, go for it. I want to do my AMI(?) now.